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mayzwatson 's review for:
The Quality of Silence
by Rosamund Lupton
(I received a digital copy of this book from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review)
I'm not sure what it is between me and Rosamund Lupton, but we simply do NOT get on.
I read her previous novel, Afterwards, last summer and found it very confusing as it didn't really know what kind of story it wanted to tell.. Was it a murder mystery, or magical realism, or family drama, or something else? Sometimes a mish mash of genres can be an inviting thing, but to me it felt like Lupton was given way too much leeway by her editor and simply wrote whatever popped into her head.
I will admit, The Quality Of Silence doesn't suffer quite so badly from this genre confusion. We follow Yasmin and her daughter, Ruby, a Deaf ten year old, across the wilds of Alaska. I've not read a book before with a Deaf protagonist and found these aspects of The Quality Of Silence very interesting, although at times Ruby became a caricature of a preteen to me - always saying OMG! and SUPER COOLIO! and other things that no child has ever said.
Yasmin is hunting for her husband, wildlife cameraman Matt, who is supposedly stranded in the wilderness. Despite literally dozens of other characters advising her not to set off into a storm with her young child, she does it anyway. It's difficult to sympathise with Yasmin as a character because she simply acts ludicrously. I know we're supposed to think "wow, she really loves her husband!" but how are we to believe that this fight or flight reaction suddenly grants her with all of the knowledge of an arctic Bear Grylls?
The rest of the novel is basically a flimsy attempt to protest fracking, which I found quite odd. Obviously Lupton has done her research on energy resources, and also the cultures of indigenous people in Alaska, which was interesting to read about but a lot of things are left unexplained and I ended up Googling a lot of words that I came across.
I think in the future I'll steer clear of Rosamund Lupton. She has plenty of fans but I'm simply not one of them.
I'm not sure what it is between me and Rosamund Lupton, but we simply do NOT get on.
I read her previous novel, Afterwards, last summer and found it very confusing as it didn't really know what kind of story it wanted to tell.. Was it a murder mystery, or magical realism, or family drama, or something else? Sometimes a mish mash of genres can be an inviting thing, but to me it felt like Lupton was given way too much leeway by her editor and simply wrote whatever popped into her head.
I will admit, The Quality Of Silence doesn't suffer quite so badly from this genre confusion. We follow Yasmin and her daughter, Ruby, a Deaf ten year old, across the wilds of Alaska. I've not read a book before with a Deaf protagonist and found these aspects of The Quality Of Silence very interesting, although at times Ruby became a caricature of a preteen to me - always saying OMG! and SUPER COOLIO! and other things that no child has ever said.
Yasmin is hunting for her husband, wildlife cameraman Matt, who is supposedly stranded in the wilderness. Despite literally dozens of other characters advising her not to set off into a storm with her young child, she does it anyway. It's difficult to sympathise with Yasmin as a character because she simply acts ludicrously. I know we're supposed to think "wow, she really loves her husband!" but how are we to believe that this fight or flight reaction suddenly grants her with all of the knowledge of an arctic Bear Grylls?
The rest of the novel is basically a flimsy attempt to protest fracking, which I found quite odd. Obviously Lupton has done her research on energy resources, and also the cultures of indigenous people in Alaska, which was interesting to read about but a lot of things are left unexplained and I ended up Googling a lot of words that I came across.
I think in the future I'll steer clear of Rosamund Lupton. She has plenty of fans but I'm simply not one of them.